Sudden audio white noise

Hi Andreas

I have the same issue with the same setup. No daisy chained firewires though. Have you been solving your issue?

After Installing Lion (God forbid) and upgrading to the latest version of the MOTU drivers (ver 1.6 48575) the UltraLite produces loud white noise! It shows after 5-20 minutes of use and starts with a couple of digital noise burst as there is something wrong with the sample rate. After 10-30 seconds the only sound that comes from the MOTO interface is loud white noise!

I have recorded the sound of my monitors recorded with a handheld recorder:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3306558/MOTU_Ultralite_MacOSLion.mp3

It is the same issue in all applications. I have experienced it in iTunes, VLC player, Ableton Live and QuickTime player.

I have found out that if I go to the MOTU Audio Setup and change the Sample Rate to 48000 the sound is ok again for a while (approximately 1 minute) and then again turns into white noise.

I have been discussing this with the MOTU technical support that until now have been reluctant to conclude that it is driver issues.

Best Regards, Rasmus

Good info and suggestion.

In Lion it's possible to turn the volumen up and down in the OS by the keyboard - a feature that wasn't available in earlier versions of Mac OS X. I have also been wondering if this is causing some kind of buffer overflow if the volumen is turned all the up. However the issue is still there by lowering the OS volumen to 50%

The MOTU technical support cocludes in the last reply to me thats it's an OS issue, which I'm still not quite sure of. It might be, but it might also be a driver issue. I'm therefore a bit stranded on the issue right now - have done a lot of troubleshouting without succes.

May I ask you:

1. Which version of the UltraLite do you have? I have the first version (No MK-thing)

2. How often do you experience the issue? Here it's quite random but typically after 20-30 minutes

3. Does your issue sound like my sound issue (listen to the link in an earlier post)?

If we are more persons experiencing the issue we might have a better chance of being taken seriously.

Thanks in advance!

BR, Rasmus

Ok, good info. We seem to have the exact same hardware combination: iMac, Mac OS X Lion and the first version of the MOTU UltraLite.

I'm not using Logic at all. I'm experiencing the issue in all applications, Ableton Live, iTunes, VLC player, QuickTime Player, the browser etc.

Have you experienced the issue in other applications than Logic? If not, can you do a test, for instance play music through iTunes for an hour or two and see if the issue shows up? What is your frequency of the issue?

I'm almost sure this is a software issue - either a MOTU driver issue og a Mac OS X Lion issue. I have done a lot of troubleshooting including:

1. Tried several firewire cables (To exlude that it's not a bad cable) - no luck

2. Connecting only one firewire unit - the UltraLite (To exclude that other firewire units are causing the issue) - no luck

3. Tried the UltraLite on my Mac OS Tiger machine - no issue, I cannot reproduce the issue on this machine

4. Tried to only run one application after a fresh restart: iTunes (to exclude that some third party application is causing the issue) - no luck

5. It worked fine on my iMac running Snow Leopard before upgrading to Lion

6. We are two persons with the same hardware combination experiencing the exact same issue (Kinda proves that its not a broken sound interface)

7. Downgraded to an earlier MOTU driver than the newest so-called "Lion compatible" driver - no luck

8. The issue is only when the UltraLite is connected. There is no issue when running the native sound output or another USB sound interface (I have tried a Guitar rig session I/O on my iMac)

9. The issue stops if I restart the sound interface or restarts Lion or switch the sample rate in the MOTU Audio Setup

Unfortunately I have not another Lion Machine to test on (to exclude that it's some hidden applications running in the background causing the issue). Do you have other Lion machines to test on?

If you have the time you can try to do the same troubleshooting as me. If you conclude the same as me I think we have a good bug report to Apple/MOTU that they hopefully will take care of.

BR, Rasmus

Hey Rasmus,

I've expreienced the same problem and have the same hardware as you. I read your other thread on the MOTU forums about the possibility of the WiFi affecting it, so I'm finally giving my MOTU another shot... we'll see.

Anyway, I was wondeirng if you had an update on all your hard work!

Thanks,

smokingmole

Yes another one with the same problem!

For me i found out the problem doesn't excist as much if i turn of my Western Digital HD that;s running through my firewire port.

(unibody Macbook pro)

But still it does happen, very annoying... I send a mail to Motu and they told me my Motu Ultralite needed a visit to the dealer for some maintenance, i didn't believe this because the card works like a baby when i have my WD turned of.

I also noticed (don't know if this is the problem) when my WD is running (don't know what its doing) the problem excist more..the light starts blinking and out of a sudden the noise starts...

So guys lets bundle our force...and find a solution because it ***** big time!

BR,

Brian

Turning off my wifi solved the problem for me. Now I'm using my motu again all the time.

Time has passed on this thread, but I'm having the same problem with an original Ultralite and my 2006 Mac Pro. Seems to have started with the May release of the drivers, but backing out drivers does not seem to help. I also have two other Core audio devices, and wonder if it could be conflict with those (Line 6 HD500 and NI RigKontrol both have audio drivers). The Ultralite is the only FW device on that port (though I have a scanner on another FW port).

But same symptoms (clicks, then white noise), restarting either Lion or the Ultralite fixes it (but Logic et al can't recover most of the time and have to be restarted) or changing sample rate.

Anybody ever get further resolving this issue?

Thanks, SM